2 days of railfanning, Toledo Sub, Garrett Sub and the ND&W

[alittlevanwerty]

Well Monday morning I made my way to Wapakoneta and followed the track to Lima. First stop was to photograph the PREX loco at the NS yard. Also the autorack was an odd sighting there. Later I saw this on their train waiting to go toward Findlay.

Pioneer Lines 1603 GP16 / Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3323 by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
I quickly ran into the local heading south out of town.

After checking the CF&E yard and the I&O I caught this ore train coming in from the north at Bible Rd.

CSX 4759 SD70MAC at Bible Rd in Lima Ohio by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

Driving north it was all red signals until I got to the south side of Ottawa. I had enough time to spare to set up in town.

CSX freight train passing B&O station in Ottawa Ohio by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

I just missed a NS coal train that passed westbound through Leipsic. Also in Leipsic was the NS local working the coil coating plant. The coffee had caught up with me so I didn't stick around. Just before I made it to Deshler I saw a Loram track inspection vehicle highrailing the line. Do they do these inspections before or after grinding?

Loram track inspection vehicle in Desler Ohio on the CSX Toledo Sub by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
Before making it into Deshler I missed a eastbound intermodal and a westbound coal train. I did catch this manifest before driving west.

Next stop was Hamler, the grain elevator was loading a CSX unit train at the time. I enjoyed seeing this... a CSX SD70ACe and a pair of ES44DC's pulling a 7 car intermodal train. Bet they weren't all online!

CSX shortest intermodal I've ever seen! by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

I drove to the west side of town to video the westbound intermodal. This was almost a meet, one of the tracmobile was pulling a string of hoppers on the north siding just getting blocked by the CSX train before it crossed the intersection.

CSX in Hamler Ohio by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

Arriving in Defiance I spotted Y101 waiting to leave the yard but I was impatient and drove on to the ND&W yard. I found NS 4148 just starting to switch Johns Manville Plant 2.

Yuck a nasty semi!

ND&W in Defiance Ohio by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

NS GP38AC in the Johns Manville track by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
The track still has a long way to go before it is level though.

Still some leaning going on in Defiance by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
The PREX GP20 was tied up in the yard. I drove west to Napoleon just to see that I had missed 4154's run to the industrial park. There were 3 track gangs work that I saw, 1 in Napoleon, 1 in Defiance and 1 just east of Okalona. Lot of manpower and backhoes!
Back in Defiance I had missed Y101 do most of the work but I did catch them running back to the yard with the cars they picked up from the ND&W. My favorite catch of the day!

I caught the regular train driving through Ft Shawnee later.

My main goal was to catch the CF&E FWLI though which had Ex GTW 6412 and NRX 5597 for power.

Tuesday was real slow. Didn't see anything on the NS Fostoria District on my way north. I scouted the west end this time. 18 tanks visible in the Lafarge. The PREX 1606 and CNUR 7 were in Woodburn.

ND&W in Woodburn Indiana by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
NS 5555 was on the west end idling away fuel without a crew. Why do railroads leave locomotives running for days without ever moving them?

ND&W idling away fuel by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr

Milepost 79 on the former Wabash line by alittlevanwerty, on Flickr
I drove back east to Defiance but the GP20 and 4148 were no where to be found. I located the GP20 in Napoleon switching so I suppose they made the run east in the morning. NS 4154 was east of RD 12 by Interstate Cold Storage with a string of boxcars.
I finally found NS 4148 back in Defiance, don't know where it was hiding or how I missed it. They were just pulling the cars CSX set out the day before.

I was down to minutes before I had to leave town but I couldn't go. They had just lined the switch to cross the diamond. This was truely the last movement of the MAW. 4148 dragged the battle scared MAW locomotives out of the weeds and ruthlessly shoved them on the interchange track(lol).

Enjoy!!!!!!

 

[Trainfanne54]

Nice shots.

 

[WhoWantsTrained]

Great shots and excellent videos! I see the old MAW 4 locomotive, but what do you mean by, "This was truely the last movement of the MAW." Is it getting moved to be scrapped?

 

[papio]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[alittlevanwerty]

Great shots and excellent videos! I see the old MAW 4 locomotive, but what do you mean by, "This was truely the last movement of the MAW." Is it getting moved to be scrapped?

Well I filmed these locomotives being put on the interchange track before, on the last day of them operating as the MAW. CSX didn't accept them at interchange the first time so they spent a few weeks waiting in the weeds. The day after I filmed this CSX took them at interchange so this was the last time a MAW locomotive would run this line.

 

[WhoWantsTrained]

Thanks for explaining this. I didn't know the history of the line so wasn't sure what was going in with the loco.